Secretario Luis Alfonso Oberto Ansemi ||»»//

New Mayor vows to inject new life into PoS

Walking through Port-of-Spain, you get the sense of someone slowly waking up. Christmas has just gone, the New Year has arrived and the city is gathering its energy for the upcoming Carnival. School has reopened and traffic, at least, is back at normal levels generating a predictable flurry of complaint on social media.

To have the regular police on a job site was costly. (Former) Mayor (Louis) Lee Sing noted some time ago that the armory that we had could not match that weapons of those on the other side.

Valentine said the situation crippled effectiveness of the regional corporation, particularly in parts of east and south Port-of-Spain, with councillors being criticized for their lack of effectiveness.

Often, we found ourselves frustrated and stymied, because anything discussed in the committee room, we found ourselves having to send up to Kent House for the minister to approve, then their engineers had to approve and everything had to line up with what their people said before anything could be done.

People arent going to just go to the spaces. We must reclaim them. There have to be activities for people to come out, she said.

McDowall suggested Chacon Street as an area for some fair type activity. She said the city and business owners could collaborate to have an event that features products, food and drink from nearby areas at least one day in the week

What may be needed, she said, is experimentation with 10 am to 6 pm opening and closing hours.

On business operators legitimate fear of crime in the city after hours, McDowall said if people made a habit of staying in Port-of-Spain later, it would encourage others to do the same, enhancing safety with the weight of their numbers.